Tail of the Dragon Coming Soon to a Bookstore Near You: Action, philosophy, romance, and a celebration of America’s roots

It is now official; American Publishing will be bringing my new book Tail of the Dragon to bookstores in 2012 and are committed to giving life to this stunning story. It will now proceed into a phase where their editor and I will work on the final manuscript in the coming months. This process could take up to a year which is why the book is scheduled for a 2012 delivery. It is more fitting for a release during that year because of the presidential election that is coming up.

In the book tentatively called, Tail of the Dragon, the governor in Tennessee is making a presidential run for the White House and he’s putting a lot of police on the street to help his campaign with public perception and the F.O.P union. However, to pay for those police officers, the various districts all over the state have increased their citation rates as a way to generate revenue, to cover the costs the governor has imposed upon the tax payers of Tennessee.

I’ve made it well-known on these pages how I feel about taxes and abuse by authority, so the issues of this story is something I feel very passionate about, more passionate than I do over education issues. I have a long history with law enforcement, much of it not good, and a long history with politicians. Law enforcement imposes the law that politicians create. If you believe as I do, that a majority of the politicians are simply corrupt at heart, lured into office because they lack the confidence to perform private sector work, and attempt to justify their positions by creating more laws, then the process is inherently broken, and it’s wrong to ask a tax payer to pay the salary of an unneeded police officer just so a politician wants to pander to the public’s desire for safety, then use those officers to write citations against those same tax payers as another way to generate money for the state, which turns out to be a disguised tax.

One of the best places in the country where this conflict can be seen is in Tennessee, on the western frontier of the Smoky Mountains in a place known the world over as one of the greatest roads ever built, it’s called, The Tail of the Dragon, it’s 318 curves in an 11 mile stretch of RT 129 that lures every car enthusiast, race car driver, motorcyclist, automotive engineer, and photographer in the country to test their abilities on it.

With speed, tourists, and radical bikers all concentrated in a known area where the law is openly being broken, the temptation of the Tennessee Highway Patrol to gather their citation quotas are too lucrative. Citation abuse is rampant as seen in the following videos.

I set the story of my book in this particular region because I’ve run the Dragon with my wife, daughter and son-in-law and saw the conflict there as a larger metaphor for what is going on in the rest of the country. The south is still refreshingly anti-progressive, so their resistance to progressive legislation is openly hostile. Tennessee is interesting because it is the state of Al Gore, yet they still embrace confederate battle flags at their tourism sites, so a kind of battle is being waged among progressive politicians and the kind of fans that love NASCAR.

The large resort town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee is very close to the Tail of the Dragon, so I set out to tell a romantic story of a couple that goes to that mountain town in order to rekindle their marriage and run the Dragon on their new motorcycle.

Many of the people who run the Dragon view getting pulled over by the cops there as a rite of passage. They figure the fines are worth it, for the chance to run the Dragon. After all, so many people run the Dragon on a Saturday afternoon that the police can’t pull over everyone. So part of the thrill is getting away with speeding on the Dragon and running the gauntlet of police without a fine. In this next video there are a couple of motorcycle riders that were pulled over even though they were driving pretty slow.

The premise behind my new book is this; what would happen if our couple going to the Smoky Mountains to put a spark into their marriage and have a little fun on their motorcycle were pulled over by the aggressive Tennessee Highway Patrol and refused to recognize the authority of the officers and the obvious money scam that is going on. What follows is a remarkable story about the meaning of life; the role of government, the desire for freedom, and the spirit of individuality as the entire reach of law enforcement both local and federal descend upon the couple to force compliance to the law.
Deep in the culture of America, and the south in particular is a love of thumbing their noses at the law, which in my opinion is a healthy system of checks and balances. It is good to dislike too much authority and southern culture still embraces such rebellion.

It is sort of a sad state of our country and its heritage that The Dukes of Hazard, a TV show from the 70’s and early 80’s are still so beloved by millions of Americans, and in the south, the General Lee (car) could run for president and be elected. It’s sad because in the coastal cultures of America, (New York and Los Angeles) the need for this rebellious heritage has been ignored in favor of progressive agendas, so new material has not been produced to fulfill the obvious hunger for this type of entertainment, leaving a large part of America still yearning for such an old TV show.

It is in such shows that the hearts and minds of the young live out their inner desire to be truly free of authority and to live their lives of their own accord, without the government trying to stick their noses into their business. This tendency is still strong in the south because many of the people from that region are the descendents of moonshiners from the prohibition age, where progressives removed alcohol from American culture in the 1920’s. It was the moonshiners that started NASCAR and in Gatlinburg to this very day moonshine is still an important part of the cultural heritage, a heritage that dislikes too much authority.

This is why the typical past time among many young men and hot-blooded women on a Saturday afternoon is a NASCAR race, or a trip to the local drag strip to race the cars they’ve spent all week working on.

This is why riders on the Tail of the Dragon are so willing to risk themselves, and financial penalties on a quest for thrills and freedom, sometimes to tragic results.

Even big named celebrities make frequent runs to the Dragon. Here is a charity run organized by Kyle Petty. Such sites are common at the Dragon. Thousands of motorcycles and cars run that stretch of road every day.

One of the reasons places like Gatlinburg are so popular and relaxing is similar to Key West, Florida. There is an open distaste for the law and people can get away from the politics of their jobs, their communities, their states, and their nation, and relish in a place where honesty is embraced and common sense rules.

I look forward to delivering to America a book that will embrace everything shown here and more, in a book that needed to be written because nobody else has done it. It is a book that is uniquely about American culture and its true desires.

So start looking forward to a unique literary experience that will take you on a journey that only a madman would seek. On that journey essential truths will be revealed about the nature and character of the American spirit, and it all starts by simply refusing to submit to authority and the chain reaction of events that are destined to follow.

2012 is not that far away………………………..I promise. Soon you will be able to read, Tail of the Dragon at a book store near you.

Rich Hoffman

15 thoughts on “Tail of the Dragon Coming Soon to a Bookstore Near You: Action, philosophy, romance, and a celebration of America’s roots

  1. Congratulations to you Rich. I am sure “Tail of the Dragon” will be an interesting experience for those of who live vicariously through the experiences and lives of dare-devils. We enjoy relishing the exploits of those who do the things we cannot do. I, for one, do not have the courage to “fly” down a road with one hairpin curve after another. I’m sure glad there are people who dare to live and experience those things safely.

    Those who take life by the tail and swing it for all its worth, who live their lives to the limits and who have the courage to fight for what is right and just are what this country has encouraged from its inception. Somewhere along the way, the powers that took over, decided to tell us all what to do. Then they decided to tax us to the limits.

    Keep fighting and keep writing, my friend.


Leave a Reply


WordPress.com Logo


Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s
